


The Family Way

by Illiad_And_Oddity



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff, M/M, Penguin!Keith, Penguin!Shiro, based on bleachkeki's penguin AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-30 00:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16754164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illiad_And_Oddity/pseuds/Illiad_And_Oddity
Summary: Penguin!Keith and Penguin!Shiro really want to start a family.  But where will they find an egg?Based on bleachkeki's adorable penguin art!





	The Family Way

**Author's Note:**

> Blame the good folks of the shiro loves men discord for encouraging me!
> 
> And of course, blame [bleachkeki's freaking adorable art](http://bleachkeki.tumblr.com/tagged/penguin-sheith) for inspiring the idea in the first place.

Shiro was sad. Keith could tell. He was trying not to show it, but Keith could see him staring at the other couples, all with eggs to incubate, and he knew Shiro was wishing they had one of their own.

“Hey,” Keith said, “We’ll find an egg.”

“We’ve been looking and looking, though,” Shiro said, “Maybe there weren’t any extras at all this year?”

Keith prodded Shiro with his beak to make his mate lay down. Shiro was much taller than him, and Keith could only give him a proper preening if Shiro was laying down, so that was what they did now. Shiro flopped onto his belly with a wistful little sigh, and Keith preened the tuft of white feathers on his head.

“We’ll find an egg,” Keith cooed reassuringly, “Every other couple has at least one, so we’ll get one, too.”

Shiro was the strongest, bravest, most beautiful penguin Keith had ever met. Of course they’d find an egg! Shiro wasn’t the kind of penguin who _wouldn’t_ get an egg somehow, now that he had a mate.

“ _Hey there, guys. Look at you two being all cute! Too bad your human namesakes aren’t figuring stuff out yet!_ ”

Keith turned to look at the human that was squawking its weird human noises at them. It was the taller, skinnier brown one. Keith didn’t like that one as much as the rounder brown one, but humans were mostly okay, he thought. Sometimes they picked him up and carried him around, and he wasn’t a fan of that, but they brought food and occasionally they preened him, which he tolerated.

“ _Got a present for you guys,_ ” the human squawked.

Keith ignored it. The human didn’t have food, and wasn’t trying to pick him up or preen him, so he focused instead on preening his sad mate. But Shiro suddenly stood back up, so quickly that Keith toppled over with an indignant squawk.

“Shiro! What the-?”

“Keith, Keith, look!” Shiro said excitedly, flapping his flippers, “An egg!”

An egg? Keith turned to look, and scrambled to his feet as well. There really was an egg, just sitting there on the ice near the human’s feet! They’d spent days and days looking, and hadn’t found any eggs at all, and now one had just appeared as if by magic!

Keith scrambled over to inspect it. It was still warm, _alive_ , and that meant it had to be _their_ egg now! Right? If it was some other couple’s egg, it was their own fault for forgetting it there. Besides, having an egg meant Shiro wouldn’t be sad anymore.

Keith tried to sit on it, but it was a big egg and he couldn’t quite cover it properly. He needed to roll it to the nest where he could incubate it properly.

“ _That’s not going to work, little guy, it’s like a quarter your size,_ ” the human squawked, and reached for Keith, “ _Here, let me just give that to Shiro._ ”

The human picked Keith up, and Keith squawked, squirming. He had to sit on the egg before it got too cold! The human set him down again a few steps away from the egg, and went to grab the egg.

“Egg thief!” Keith screamed, “Egg thief! That’s _our_ egg, get away from it!”

He pecked the human, which squawked and withdrew, and Keith gave chase. The human was a lot bigger than him, but Keith could scare off pretty much anything if he tried, and this egg, _their egg_ was too important to back down from.

“ _Jesus Christ, calm down!_ ”

Keith pecked the human again, “Stay away from our egg!”

“ _Ouch, you feathery little jerk! I do you a favor and this is how you repay me?_ ”

The human backed away a few steps, and Keith rushed toward it, flippers spread, and the human backed up again. He chased the human right out of the colony that way, a few steps at a time, then returned to Shiro. He didn’t see the egg, and he looked around, worried.

“Where’s the egg?” he asked.

Shiro lifted his belly flap to show the egg sitting securely on his feet. “It’s right here!” he said, sounding happier than Keith had heard him sound since before the eggs had started to be laid.

Keith touched the egg with his beak and reassured himself that it was warm. They’d only found their egg a few minutes ago, and already Keith had had to fight to protect it. But that was okay. What kind of father would he be if he didn’t fight for his egg and his mate?

“I’ll protect you,” Keith promised Shiro, “I’ll protect you, and our egg.”

“ _Our_ egg,” Shiro repeated, sounding overjoyed, “We have an egg!”

He adjusted the egg a little on his feet and shuffled closer to Keith. Keith was delighted. They’d finally found an egg! He didn’t know exactly where it had come from – he hadn’t seen any other penguins nearby that might have lost it – but they’d found it and now it was theirs. Keith would protect it from egg thieves and get food for the chick and for Shiro. He was still sometimes amazed that such a wonderful penguin as Shiro had agreed to be his mate, so he had to prove he was worth it.

Keith cooed happily as Shiro leaned down to preen him, “Told you we’d find one.”

Life had already been pretty good here, and now it would be perfect.

~ ~ ~

“How did it go?” Allura asked, “They accepted the egg, right?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, “So quickly that Keith nearly took my fingers off when I tried to touch it!”

“Well why did you try to do that?” Allura asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Because Keith was trying to sit on it and the egg was like a third his size. I was just going to scoot it over to Shiro!” Lance was embarrassed to find himself getting defensive. Okay, so they weren’t supposed to handle eggs like that without precautions, which he hadn’t taken, but he hadn’t even picked it up! “But Keith got protective and attacked me, and tried to chase me out of the enclosure!”

“He’s an _Adélie_ , Lance,” Pidge snorted, looking like she could barely contain her laughter, “And he’s aggressive even for an Adélie. What were you expecting to happen when you tried to touch an egg he’d already decided to incubate?”

Lance scowled at her, “Well, _anyway_ , once I saw Shiro take the egg, I left. I figured I’d give him some time to settle down before I do anything else.”

“They look super-happy!” Hunk said, looking at the monitors which showed the live feed of the penguin enclosure. One of the screens showed Shiro and Keith together, preening each others’ feathers. “Look at them all cuddled up, isn’t that just so cute?”

Lance was a little too annoyed to be won over by the penguin couple’s cuteness, but he did smile as a thought occurred to him.

“So...” he asked with a grin, “When are we going to tell the human Keith and Shiro that their penguin namesakes are parents?”

**Author's Note:**

> Lance is fun to write. 
> 
> FYI, I considered titling this 'Penguin Keith vs. the Dastardly Egg Thief'
> 
> [Come say hi to me on tumblr!](http://dreaming-shark.tumblr.com/)


End file.
